alright, we might be wrong, but what if we’re right?


Women Observing Stars 1936 Chou Ota, Japan via COILHOUSE

Link via Lucas

Luxim labs recently unveiled an incredibly energy efficient light bulb that packs more luminosity than a street lamp into a pill-sized form factor. Each bulb is filled with argon gas, which turns to plasma when electricity is focused through it. The energy is driven to the bulb without electrodes. The resulting light is intensely bright and mirrors the quality of light radiated by the sun, yet is produced by one of the smallest, most energy efficient light sources we’ve seen.

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A substantial portion of energy is converted into light instead of heat, which makes the bulbs highly efficient. Each super-bulb produces a stunning 140 lumens per watt, doubling the output of high-end LEDs (70 lumens per watt) and leaving standard light bulbs in the dust (15 lumens per watt). While cost and longevity have yet to be released, these brilliant bulbs represent a bright future for energy efficient lighting.

I read about these brilliant innovations, and love them, but wonder if they’ll spread down from the top in enough time to help. Most of the light bulbs in my house are the twirled glass energy savers, my roommate and I trek across the alley to illicitly use the neighbor’s blue bins, we now have a balcony worm farm compost, and we shop as conscious consumers, as ethically as we can for every sort of product, be it food or clothing or cleaners. The same goes, likely, for most of my friends, but not, unfortunately, for the majority.

Which makes no sense.

From every angle I can see, it’s a good idea to go green, even if you’re one of the hidebound stalwarts who don’t believe the constant, savage news about climate change or the impending food crisis. If we prepare for the worst, we have a chance to handle the worst, if we prepare for nothing, we can’t handle anything at all. I think of it as a logic problem, preparing for the future, like Pascal’s Wager applied to the environment instead of religion. “If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing”

What do you do to try and make a change?

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